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Governors

Our school community is inspired by the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13) where we are encouraged to think about and understand that the smallest things have the greatest potential when they are provided with the best environment for growth. This is exactly what we all strive for at St James’; a learning environment where all our children can flourish and grow in their own unique way.

School governing bodies that clearly understand their roles and responsibilities, build productive relationships with school leaders, know their schools well and use the views of parents, pupils and the wider community are best equipped to drive improvement in their schools.

School governors are one of the largest volunteer groups in the country with more than 300,000 governors in England. Over the past 20 years, school governing bodies have taken on more responsibility and their role has become more important as schools have gained increasing autonomy.

Inspection evidence tells us that there is a relationship between effective governance, the quality of leadership and management, and the quality of provision and pupil achievement.

The Governing Body of St James' CE Primary School is fully supportive of the school's vision and committed to working with the leadership team to create a happy and fulfilling learning environment for each and every child at the school.

Our Governors came to visit school on Friday 1st March 2024 as part of their monitoring visit.

A selection of children from across the school shared their English, and Humanities books with them. The children explained what they had learnt, what they enjoyed and what knowledge and skills they had developed!  They also had a lesson on TTRS (Timestable Rockstars) where they learnt about how the online platform is helping them improve their timetsable skills - they even had a go themselves! 

Here are some photos from the day. 

The functions of the governing body include the following core strategic functions:

  • ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction;
  • holding the Headteacher to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils, and the performance management of staff; and
  • overseeing the financial performance of the school and making sure its money is well spent.

In exercising their functions the Governing Body will:

  • act with integrity, objectivity and honesty and in the best interests of the school; and
  • be open about the decisions they make and the actions they take and be prepared to explain their decisions and actions to interested parties.

The Headteacher’s responsibilities include:

  • the internal organisation, management and control of the school; and
  • the educational performance of the School.

The Headteacher is accountable to the governing body for the performance of all his or her responsibilities and must comply with any reasonable direction of the governing body.

Governing body procedures must comply with the School Governance (Roles, Procedures and Allowances)(England) Regulations 2013 (published January 2014). While these regulations provide a basic framework the Governing Body also needs to agree more detailed ways of working to ensure our business is conducted efficiently and our rules are applied consistently and fairly.

Please click here to download a copy of our Public Sector Equalities Duty